#Maine - New testing identifies elevated #benzene emissions near #SouthPortland tank farms

“You might have been able to do this in the past, but we’re not going to let you do this in the future.”

by Norah Hogan, 4/14/2026

Excerpt: "Long-term exposure to benzene has been linked to dizziness, headaches, blood disorders and cancer.

"Reiner, who has lived near three of the sites for years, was diagnosed with bladder cancer last Thanksgiving. He underwent surgery in December and is now receiving treatment.

" 'The big question is, was it this exposure? You can’t say. But this exposure may have contributed,' he said. 'The more toxins and environmental hazards you encounter in your life, it all adds up. It’s the cumulative effect.'

"Concerns about emissions have persisted for years. Previously, oil companies were allowed to self-monitor their emissions and were subject to stricter regulations only if they reported elevated toxin levels.

"In 2019, #GlobalCompanies LLC entered into a legal settlement that required the installation of new technology to reduce emissions. The company’s benzene levels are now well below state thresholds.

" 'They don’t want to be forced to do something that would be the right thing for everybody,' Reiner said. 'Everybody in America could benefit if oil companies started cleaning their emissions before they leave the tank farms and facilities.' "

Read more:
https://www.wmtw.com/article/elevated-benzene-near-south-portland-tank-farms/71016200

#MainePol #MaineNews #BenzeneEmissions #AirIsLife #BigOilAndGas #AirPollution #Carcinogenic

I heard this song on WMPG's show, #TheWeavers with #LisaSockabasin. What a great lead-up to today's #DemocracyNow broadcast (Weavers is at 11:30am, while Democracy Now airs at Noon).

"You provided us a home; our conduct is shameful
Momma! We need you now more than ever
I can't believe the way we treated you; better late than never
I've taken you for granted but from here and now I cherish you
And this my open letter to show the pain that I share with you
You've given us a life, my brothers make you hurt
But all they see is dollar signs when stealing out your purse
Man, they never taken the time to see you for what you really worth
But the damage done is permanent it can't be reversed

Oh Momma! You really made some shady people
You've given them the world but like the sun you see no evil
Momma D was my teacher but she gone now
I know where I belong now; my mother's keeper
So Momma I refuse to see you die this way
I take your pain to fuel my fame to fight the game another day

It's oil mines and pipelines; show me what the cancer is
Injected in your veins I'll tell you what the answer is
Momma, Momma!
(Wade, in the water)
Momma, Momma!
(Wade, in the water, children)"

- The Water, #SnottyNosedRezKids, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1TADWYrQ24

#LoveYourMother #IndigenousMusic #NativeAmericanMusicians #HipHop #WaterIsLife #BigOilAndGas #Resistance #CorporateColonialism

Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta

An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.

by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024

"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.

" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'

"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.

"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.

"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.

"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.

"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.

"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).

"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.

" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "

Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/

#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies

Fire out and shelter-in-place order is lifted after #OilRefinery explosion near #Texas coast

By HALLIE GOLDEN
Updated 7:29 AM EDT, March 24, 2026

"An oil refinery fire near the Texas coast was put out Tuesday and a shelter-in-place order was lifted, hours after a large explosion at the complex shot plumes of smoke into the air, officials said.

"No one was injured in Monday’s explosion at the #Valero refinery in #PortArthur, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Houston, Mayor Charlotte M. Moses said. She had urged residents in parts of the west side of the city to stay put.

" 'There’s been an explosion, yes, but we’re OK; everybody’s OK,' she said. 'They’re trying to put the fire out as quickly as possible.'

"Residents at least several miles away said they felt their homes shake. Some schools in the area were closed Tuesday as a precaution.

"The explosion comes amid a spike in gas prices driven by uncertainty over the global oil supply because of the Iran war.

"The refinery has about 770 employees and can process about 435,000 barrels of oil per day, according to Valero’s website. The plant refines heavy sour crude oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel."

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/refinery-explosion-texas-coast-60ecf6d9a70a2f1d5494fb8e38a84c4a

#BigOilAndGas #BlackRain #ToxicPlumes #RenewablesNow #USPol #TrumpSucks #Oiligrchy

Are they trying to build another "Doorway to Hell" in #California? smh

#Methane gas leak [and FIRE] in #WascoCA under control

by: Jacqueline Gutierrez
Posted: Jan 23, 2026

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — "A methane gas leak that prompted an evacuation in Wasco is now under control, according to the Kern County Fire Department.

"A methane gas well caught fire in a remote area around 9:30 a.m. in Wasco near Palm Avenue and Phillips Road. An evacuation order was issued for a half mile radius, according to #Genasys.

"Officials say they were able to extinguish the fire, the leak is no longer active and the evacuation order has been lifted.

"Events leading up to the fire and gas leak are not immediately known."

Source:
https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/evacuation-order-issued-in-wasco-over-methane-gas-leak/

#MethaneLeaks #MethaneFire #MethaneEmissions #HotterThanHell? #ClimateChange #BigOilAndGas

Satellite Images Reveal #MegaLeaks of Potent Greenhouse Gas

UCLA's #StopMethaneProject ranked the 25 oil and gas sites with the largest methane emissions rates worldwide.

By Ellyn Lapointe
Published March 18, 2026

"Researchers with the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, used data from #CarbonMapper—a non-profit that uses remote sensing technology to pinpoint and quantify methane emissions—to rank these mega-leaks. They’re spread across a small handful of countries, including the #US, with the majority in #Turkmenistan. A whopping 15 of the 25 largest leaks are concentrated in this #authoritarian state."

Read more:
https://gizmodo.com/satellite-images-reveal-mega-leaks-of-potent-greenhouse-gas-2000734990

Full list:
https://stopmethane.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-the-top-25-methane-plumes

#MethaneLeaks #MethaneEmissions #WorldPol #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #BigOilLies #BigGasLies #GreenhouseGas #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Iran #Venezuela #Texas #Pakistan

Feds Are Downplaying #MethaneLeaks in America’s Biggest #OilField, Satellite Data Suggests

A report found #MethaneEmissions in the #PermianBasin to be nearly four times higher than #EPA estimates. A senator wants an explanation.

By Ellyn Lapointe
Published March 20, 2026

"#FossilFuel extraction is a known source of #methane leaks, releasing large amounts of this potent #GreenhouseGas into the atmosphere. Yet the Environmental Protection Agency appears to be drastically underreporting emissions from the nation’s largest oil-producing region.

"Nearly half of U.S. oil comes from the Permian Basin in West #Texas and southeastern #NewMexico. The region generates more than $100 billion annually for the U.S. economy, and apparently, a whole lot of methane, too. A recent report from #MethaneSAT—a methane-sensing satellite that observed Earth from March 2024 to June 2025—found emissions from the Permian Basin to be nearly four times higher than the EPA’s official estimates."

Read more:
https://gizmodo.com/feds-are-downplaying-methane-leaks-in-americas-biggest-oil-field-satellite-data-suggests-2000736269

#BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #BigOilLies #BigGasLies #USPol #TrumpSucks
#TrumpsEPA #EPAFail #ClimateChange
#GlobalWarming

#Colorado’s #OilAndGas industry is vastly underestimating #methane emissions

Jennifer Oldham
Thu, February 26, 2026 at 6:00 AM EST

Excerpt: "A unique aerial measurement campaign found that emission inventories compiled by energy companies to account for planet-warming methane leaking from equipment on Colorado oil and gas production sites undercount such #pollutants by at least two times.

"Results from the $3.25 million project, led by a team of university researchers and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, provided officials for the first time with a more complete picture of the invisible pollutant emitted from well pads. #FossilFuel extraction is the state’s second-largest source of methane pollution, which has a global warming potential roughly 80 times that of carbon dioxide during a 20-year period."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/colorado-oil-gas-industry-vastly-110014181.html

#BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #BigOilLies #BigGasLies #MethaneEmissions #MethaneLeaks #USPol #TrumpSucks #TrumpsEPA #EPAFail #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming